School year 2012-2013

My youngest, on his first day of Pre-K.

*sniffle*

I don't know who gave him permission to go and grow up on me, but I know it wasn't me and I demand that he stops. Now. Immediately.

Good news though, he still say's he Momma's boy, so at least I still have that going for me.

He say's he's going to be Spiderman when he grows up.

My middle child, on his first day of 1st grade. He was so excited, no more naps this year!!

That, my friends, officially makes you a big kid. I think he grew a foot this summer, so I guess he's right, he is a big kid.

I didn't give this one permission to grow up either. I've really gotta nip this in the bud.

He wants to be a professional gamer when he grows up.

The girl. First day of 3rd grade, says summer didn't last long enough. I agree. Because another summer gone means one less summer I have with them.

I can't believe that I have a 3rd grader in the house, this in crazy.

She want to be a horse trainer when she grows up.

When life gives you lemons...

Last night I did something I've never done before... 

I don't know why I hadn't, it was so easy!

I just did what PW told me to do, and it turned out perfect!! What was that? You don't know who PW is? *gasp* we can't be friends anymore.

PW -- Pioneer Woman

And this is what I did.

That's right, I cooked a whole chicken!! I'm so proud!! It was the best things I've ever cooked, I swear. The kids loved it, although I wish chicken had three legs, 'cause three kids and two chicken legs just don't add up. 

New Pretties :)

Lookie at what finally came in the mail today...

I was so excited! I've been waiting on this for a while, it was on back order, so I had to wait even longer, but it's finally here!!

Is she not the purdy-est lamp you've ever seen?! I just love her! I also just go the new white sheer curtains in the mail last week too, and with the new curtains and the new lovely lamp, it just changes the whole room! It the Eva Colored Glass Table Lamp from Pottery Barn. I knew that I wanted a glass lamp, and at first I thought $100 was pretty steep for a lamp and lamp shade. But I did some research around the internetz, and found it was actually a really good price for a lamp AND a lamp shade. A lot of glass lamps, without a shade, goes for $100 alone. And another $60 for a linen lamp shade.

Still a work in progress :)

Yellow Paint

I stumbled across this picture of a little house that look almost just like ours, while reading over at Hooked on Houses.  My windows on either side of the fireplace are big windows though, the triple window or the part that sticks out is the dinning room. The two smaller windows is kitchen. And at the very back, where the rood slants down, is the laundry room.

Our old house has horrible vinyl siding that we plan on replacing very soon, but we plan on keeping our old, original to the house windows. I love them. I know my energy bill isn't going to love them as much, but I think that they add character to the house. When we put the new siding up, we plan on putting up fiber cement boards. They look just like the old wood siding that was used way back when, but without all of the maintenance of wood siding, but you paint it like real wood, and yellow was on my list of what color to paint the house.

I think this picture is a sign that I should ;) 

**********

And I'm supper excited! I learned last night that the lovely, organizing queen, Toni is hosting another organizing program. I rather call it an organizing PAR-TAY! I love organizing, I love every thing having a place, and I love hearing about other's ideas on organizing and getting tips that will  help me.

This round is going to last 14 weeks, and I'm ready for it NOW!
Here's what the plan looks like...

 HOME ORGANIZATION 101:

Week 1  (9/1/12)... The Kitchen

Week 2  (9/8/12)... The Garage 

Week 3  (9/15/12)... The Pantry 

Week 4 (9/22/12)... The Office

Week 5  (9/29/12)... Laundry Room

Week 6  (10/6/12)... The Master Bedroom

Week 7  (10/13/12)... The Linen Closet

Week 8  (10/20/12)... The Dining Room

Week 9  (10/27/12)... Kids Closets (or any closet)

Week 10  (11/3/12)... The Living Room

Week 11  (11/10/12)... The Play Room (bonus room)

Week 12  (11/17/12)... The Bathrooms

Week 13  (12/1/12)... Master Closet

Week 14  (12/8/12)... Mudroom (or entryway)

Please come join us, this is one of my favorite things in blogland :)

Big Bad Cleaning Machines

I love to have a clean house, and I love new things to help me clean. And in a house full of 3 kids, 3 dogs, and a cat, there's always some cleaning going on.

I know that this will sound very dramatic, but this little thing here changed my life. Or at least how I clean. There are not enough good things to say about my Swiffer Vac, but I can say I don't know how I made it with out my Swiffer. I keep it plugged in so it's already ready to go, and it goes a lot. Rarely do I use the ole broom now days. And it picks up cat hair like you would never believe.

And after I swiffer-vac, I get out my Shark steam mark. I love him too. It has it pros and cons, and I don't walways just use him. Sometimes I go old school and use a mop and bucket, but only because I love the small of Pine Sol from time to time.

This my Hoover Max Extract Multi surface Deep Cleaner. Again, I have this because I have small children and animals that love to makes messes and make me mad. This is the Big Daddy machine. For when it needs to get serious. 

Awww, ain't The Little Green so cute?! But he does his little job pretty well. This one is just for the smaller messes. I've used in mostly on my couches for when the kids tinkle on the couch.

I think this the exact one I have, and it is the best vacuum cleaner I've ever had. I've used my mother in law's Dyson, and in my opinion, my Hoover works better.

The Bookcase Jenna Built ;)

I've never put a piece of furniture together myself before, I always leave that to Joey. But, he wasn't here to put together the book case that I finally bought, so I decided to give it a try. I've had boxes and boxes of books stacked in my closet, but no where to put them, and I wanted them put on the new book case NOW.

This guy decided to help. You know, by holding down the box.

I was a little over whelmed at this point. But I do have to say, I will not hesitate to buy another bookcase like this from Target, the pieces were put in the box in the order that you needed them, and all the hardware was numbered by steps (step 1, step 2, ect.)

But I got it done, all by myself! It did take me quite a while to do it, but I think that's just because I've never put anything together before. It was pretty easy I think, I just had three kids, a cat, and two dogs helping. 

Shortly after I got it put together, we lost power for the first time that weekend, and it was out for about 18 hours, because one of our trees in the back yard fell on the power line. We had power back for about, oh, five hours, when it started surging, breakers in the house started throwing, and then the best fun of the weekend: the Directv box in Blythe Anne's room started SMOKING. I don't know why THAT breaker didn't throw, but we were freaking out. I think I handled it pretty well, I ushered all the kids into the living room, next to the front door, and then threw the main breaker to the house.

Nothing in the world smells worse than burning electronics.

I called 911, because, OMG, something in my house was smoking!!

Guy at 911 thought I was an idiot. "Uh. Take the box outside?"  I had the box situation under control, I wanted someone to come check out the rest of the house!! What if there was a fire in the walls or something??

After all that excitement, I turned the main breaker back on, and a few minutes later, we lost power. Again. At 5:30 Friday evening, my estimated time of getting power back was 7:00 PM. SATURDAY NIGHT. 

But they power company had it back on by 10:00 AM, this time it was transformer that blew. I wish you could have seen my kids when I told my Dad that the power company left a transformer in our back yard.

They thought this guy was back there:

If the power company left me a Camaro, I would not be complaining.

So after all that FUN and EXCITEMENT, I finally got all of my books out and put them on the shelf. And come to find out, half of those boxes of books -- are the kids. And I need another bookcase.

"Love is patient,

Love is kind,

It always protects,

always trusts,

always hopes...

Love never fails.

~Corinthians 13:4-8"

I guess I kinda have a Bible collection ;)

Summer Storm

We had an AWFUL storm last night, I do believe it was the worse storm I've ever been through. The kids and I ended up sitting in the hall with Marley Cat and Lucky for about an hour. There were noises I've never heard before, and honestly, I was scared. We lost power around 9 last night, so it was also a very long night, with all of us piled up in the living room.

I think I got about 4 hours of sleep total, and got up as soon as my eyes opened, to go evaluate the situation. And I quickly realized why we don't have any electricity, a tree from our back yard fell across the power line and was blocking the road too. The power company finally got the power lines fixed, so we're all soaking up the AC right now.

But, other than the downed trees and limbs, we have no other damage, thank the Lord!